Victorians! discussion

Welcome to the Victorians! discussion of Agnes Grey. Looking around on Goodreads, I get the impression that this is quite a "Marmite" novel (ie: you either love it or hate it) - so I'm hoping for plenty of healthy and, of course, civilised discussion!

This is a fairly short read, so I'm proposing we tackle it over three weeks, with the threads appearing on the 15th, 22nd and 29th October.

Week 1 Oct 15th-Oct 21st Chapters 1-6

Week 2 Oct 22nd- Oct 28th Chapters 7-17

Week 3 Oct 29th- Nov 4th Chapters 18-25 (end)

I will also post a fourth thread where overall themes can be discussed - this one will assume you have either read the whole novel or that you are not worried about spoilers. This will go up towards the end of week one.

Please feel free to use this thread to post any useful or interesting background information you come across.

Happy reading!

Pippa

Here are a couple of links on the Governess Novel as a genre:

Victorian Governess Novels – Features of the genre http://www.victorianweb.org/genre/wad...

You can read most of the chapter from Silent Voices: Forgotten Novels by Victorian Women Writers called "The Victorian Heroine Goes A-Governessing" on Google Books here:

http://books.google.es/books?id=s9M9J...

Thanks for the info, Pippa. :)

Hilary wrote: "Thanks for the info, Pippa. :)"

My pleasure, Hilary!

Oh, my! Ya gotta love this comment from the Pip's resource listed @2:

"...One method of presenting the message that governesses ought to be better treated was to introduce a character who comments on the employers in the novel. In a genre so dominated by female writers, it is noteworthy that a number of such authorial mouthpieces are men. Perhaps authors felt that female readers-cum-governess employers would more easily pick up advice from a benevolent male character than from a female voice, however authoritative."

Lily wrote: " Perhaps authors felt that female readers-cum-governess employers would more easily pick up advice from a benevolent male character than from a female voice, however authoritative."

Hopefully it's not so relevant now, but I remember at college being taught how advertisers used male voice overs when they wanted to sound important and serious because women are obviously just there to look pretty and say nice things :)

Lily wrote: "Oh, my! Ya gotta love this comment from the Pip's resource listed @2:

"...One method of presenting the message that governesses ought to be better treated was to introduce a character who comments..."

Well done for picking out that little gem! And I agree with Clari - Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

I've belatedly come across this website - http://www.mick-armitage.staff.shef.a... - which is a treasure trove of Anne/Agnes-related information, illustration and comment.

There is also a dramatised biography of the Brontës on YouTube which I thought was quite well done: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QQGgl-H...
You also get the bonus of learning some modern Greek via the subtitles ;-)

Finally, for the supreme edification of all, here is a humorous take on the Brontë sisters which I found on the Brontë thread here at Victorians: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-NKXNTh...

.... And thanks to Clari for leading me to this site where, among other things, you can find contemporary and modern critiques of Agnes Grey:

https://sites.google.com/a/u.northwes...

Pip wrote: ".... And thanks to Clari for leading me to this site where, among other things, you can find contemporary and modern critiques of Agnes Grey:

https://sites.google.com/a/u.northwes......"

it's a pity the link to an adaptation of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is dead, I love the BBC adaptations

Thank you all for these links. They're great!

Clari wrote: "it's a pity the link to an adaptation of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is dead, I love the BBC adaptations "

Try this one Clari: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ad7d4nY...

Pip wrote: "Clari wrote: "it's a pity the link to an adaptation of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is dead, I love the BBC adaptations "

Try this one Clari: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ad7d4nY..."

thanks, Pip, I'm looking forward to watching!